AG Merrick Garland Vows To Get Leakers Of Sacred Billionaire Tax Information

cracked |  On today's installment of our government undoubtedly having their priorities perfectly in check, newly-minted Attorney General Merrick Garland promised legislators that investigating the source of the alleged billionaire income tax data included in ProPublica's explosive report earlier this week stands firmly at the top of his agenda. 

“I promise you, it will be at the top of my list,” the former Supreme Court nominee told Sen. Susan Collins, during a Wednesday Senate Appropriations Committee budget hearing, per CNBC. Although the shocking ProPublica article, likely to be the first in a series, details how billionaires including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Michael Bloomberg, and George Soros allegedly used legal loopholes to pay next to nothing in personal income taxes, Garland is seemingly more concerned with how, exactly, the outlet obtained the data than why the ultra-wealthy allegedly aren't paying their fair share.

“Senator, I take this as seriously as you do. I very well remember what President Nixon did in the Watergate period — the creation of enemies lists and the punishment of people through reviewing their tax returns,” Garland explained. “This is an extremely serious matter. People are entitled, obviously, to great privacy with respect to their tax returns.” 

Despite the AG's evident passion on maintaining the sanctity of the rich's tax returns, it seems officials are already on the case – namely IRS Commissioner, Charles Rettig. “He said that their inspectors were working on it, and I’m sure that that means it will be referred to the Justice Department,” Garland explained. “This was on my list of things to raise after I finished preparing for this hearing.” Mr. Garland, if you're reading this, I know I may be a constant source of embarrassment for our mutual alma mater – Niles West High School – but you're really giving me a run for my money with this nonsense. 

The report, which aims to dispel the long-running myth "that everyone pays their fair share and the richest Americans pay the most," claims that through a series of legal loopholes – namely the fact that intangible assets, like stock earnings and increases in property value, are not taxable – some of America's richest business people have been paying much less than what some say they should to Uncle Sam. While ProPublica has stayed tight-lipped on how, exactly, they obtained these documents illustrating this phenomenon, which they claimed they received in “raw form, with no conditions or conclusions," the information included seemingly passed a reportedly rigorous fact-checking process. "In every instance we were able to check — involving tax filings by more than 50 separate people — the details provided to ProPublica matched the information from other sources," they explained.

 

The Fight To Uncover The Origin Of Covid-19

vanityfair |  Since December 1, 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 has infected more than 170 million people around the world and killed more than 3.5 million. To this day, we don’t know how or why this novel coronavirus suddenly appeared in the human population. Answering that question is more than an academic pursuit: Without knowing where it came from, we can’t be sure we’re taking the right steps to prevent a recurrence.

And yet, in the wake of the Lancet statement and under the cloud of Donald Trump’s toxic racism, which contributed to an alarming wave of anti-Asian violence in the U.S., one possible answer to this all-important question remained largely off-limits until the spring of 2021.

Behind closed doors, however, national security and public health experts and officials across a range of departments in the executive branch were locked in high-stakes battles over what could and couldn’t be investigated and made public.

A months long Vanity Fair investigation, interviews with more than 40 people, and a review of hundreds of pages of U.S. government documents, including internal memos, meeting minutes, and email correspondence, found that conflicts of interest, stemming in part from large government grants supporting controversial virology research, hampered the U.S. investigation into COVID-19’s origin at every step. In one State Department meeting, officials seeking to demand transparency from the Chinese government say they were explicitly told by colleagues not to explore the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s gain-of-function research, because it would bring unwelcome attention to U.S. government funding of it.

In an internal memo obtained by Vanity Fair, Thomas DiNanno, former acting assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance, wrote that staff from two bureaus, his own and the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, “warned” leaders within his bureau “not to pursue an investigation into the origin of COVID-19” because it would “‘open a can of worms’ if it continued.”

There are reasons to doubt the lab-leak hypothesis. There is a long, well-documented history of natural spillovers leading to outbreaks, even when the initial and intermediate host animals have remained a mystery for months and years, and some expert virologists say the supposed oddities of the SARS-CoV-2 sequence have been found in nature.

But for most of the past year, the lab-leak scenario was treated not simply as unlikely or even inaccurate but as morally out-of-bounds. In late March, former Centers for Disease Control director Robert Redfield received death threats from fellow scientists after telling CNN that he believed COVID-19 had originated in a lab. “I was threatened and ostracized because I proposed another hypothesis,” Redfield told Vanity Fair. “I expected it from politicians. I didn’t expect it from science.”

With President Trump out of office, it should be possible to reject his xenophobic agenda and still ask why, in all places in the world, did the outbreak begin in the city with a laboratory housing one of the world’s most extensive collection of bat viruses, doing some of the most aggressive research?

Why The Narrative Shift On The Lab-Leak Hypothesis?

 CJR |  What changed? There’s still no direct evidence to validate the lab-leak theory. There has been fresh contextual reporting: the Journal recently revealed the existence of a US intelligence document claiming that three researchers at the Wuhan lab were hospitalized in November 2019. (The Trump administration previously issued a fuzzier version of this claim; the Journal’s sources disagreed as to the strength of the intelligence.) Eighteen scientists wrote in Science that an investigation conducted by the World Health Organization and China failed to give “balanced consideration” to the natural-origin and lab-leak hypotheses. Nicholas Wade, a former Times science journalist, wrote in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that, as things stand, “proponents of lab escape can explain all the available facts about SARS2 considerably more easily than can those who favor natural emergence,” and Donald G. McNeil, Jr., another former Times reporter (who recently left the paper following an allegation of racism), wrote on Medium essentially backing Wade up. Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested that he’s not as confident as he was in the natural-origin theory. President Biden revealed that the intelligence community is split on the question, and ordered a further investigation to report back within ninety days.

Others say that, actually, nothing has really changed—a position that seems to unite observers who think the lab-leak theory was always credible and those who continue to doubt it. “The theory has always been the same,” Josh Rogin, a Post columnist who reported over a year ago on US safety concerns around the Wuhan lab, tweeted. “The people who got it wrong changed their minds.” Striking a different note, Angela Rasmussen, a prominent virologist, argued that “the media has chosen to dress up old speculation as new information and claim that it’s evidence. It’s not. It’s speculative, and all origin hypotheses remain possible.”

There is an awful lot to unpack here. The nub of the media criticism is, in my view, justified. Last April, I wrote, responding to Rogin’s reporting, that the press should “isolate legitimate questions” from conspiratorial noise “and try and report out the answers”; numerous journalists took this approach to the lab-leak theory, but many others did indeed dismiss it as an illegitimate line of inquiry. Such stories channeled familiar broader problems with pandemic coverage—principally, the contriving of scientific certainty in the absence of expert consensus, exacerbated by the urgent political stakes of all the conspiratorial noise. We are now seeing scientists argue in good faith about what the evidence shows—indeed, what the evidence is. This was always desirable; too often, however, argument itself was tarred as a bad-faith act.

Speaking Of Fools' Errands And Taking Membership Fees From Pissants....,

dailymail  |  Black reporter LOCKED OUT of Twitter for criticizing BLM founder's $1.4 million home purchase blasts big tech for making movement a 'sacred cow despite its financial grift'

• Patrisse Cullors, 37, has bought an expansive property in Topanga Canyon
• The district in which the BLM founder will now live is 88% white and 1.8% black
• Critics accused her of abandoning her social justice and activist roots
• Sports journalist Jason Whitlock was among those remarking on her purchase
• Twitter on Friday locked him out of his account in response to his tweet
• Whitlock told DailyMail.com he remains blocked by the social media network
• Twitter is demanding he delete his tweet linking to a celebrity real estate blog
• Whitlock says he remains 'in Twitter jail, because I won't post bail' 
• The action is the latest draconian step in censorship by the Silicon Valley firm

Leana Wen Advocating For The Mark Of The Beast Is Just Plain Trolling

WaPo  | I think it’s time for us to extend the newfound normalcy from social settings to business operations. While the CDC guidance currently discourages vaccinated people from gathering in public places, this should be overridden if businesses can verify vaccination status. Imagine that you own a gym that used to have high-intensity exercise classes but had to stop because it’s high risk to have lots of people breathing heavily in crowded indoor spaces. You could reopen these classes if everyone attending is guaranteed to be vaccinated. Or imagine that you run a restaurant that has had to operate at 30 percent capacity to keep distancing between tables. You could establish certain nights where you serve at 100 percent capacity, if all patrons and servers are reliably known to be vaccinated.

Some entities are already exploring such possibilities, including cruise operators and a handful of colleges. By requiring proof of vaccination, they will aim for herd immunity on their ships and campuses. Not only could they return to full operation, but also they could probably give their customers and students something close to the pre-pandemic experience, with full interaction and possibly without the need for masks.

In these examples, vaccination isn’t a government-imposed requirement but a voluntary action facilitated by the private sector. Any outcry over government overreach shouldn’t focus on proof of vaccination, but rather on attempts to ban businesses from asking for it. It’s the height of hypocrisy for politicians who normally tout their support for free markets to now bar the private sector from covid-safety innovations. Why can’t businesses offer customers the peace of mind that comes with much-reduced risk from a potentially deadly disease?

Some have made the equity argument: How could vaccination policies be fair as long as some aren’t able to get shots? I am the mother of two young children, and I know they probably won’t be eligible until 2022; until then, I am happy for others to have privileges that my family can’t. This isn’t so different from, say, adults-only resorts: Just because some people can’t enjoy them doesn’t mean that no one should. In fact, the more incentives the better, because the more people vaccinated, the better we all are protected.

Throughout the pandemic, there have been polarizing terms that trigger fierce opposition. Just as we should never have invoked “lockdowns,” we need to stop debating “vaccine passports.” Instead, we should define what it is that we need to move toward normalcy: a covid-19 health screen that enables people to associate with one another free from pandemic restrictions. That’s a concept I hope most Americans can get behind.

 

Marvelous Marvin Hagler Killed By mRNA Jab (But Not According To Google Or MSM)

worldboxingnews |  Former middleweight rival Thomas Hearns has claimed Marvin Hagler’s death at the age of 66 was linked to the coronavirus vaccine he received recently. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Thomas Hearns (@thomashitmanhearns)

Hearns, known as ‘The Hitman’ during his career, took to social media to report that Hagler was ‘fighting for his life in the ICU’ on Saturday. The ex-boxer also added that Hagler was there due to the ‘after-effects of the vaccine.’ 

In a sad final statement, Hearns said he believed ‘he’ll be just fine, but we could use the positive energy and Prayer for his full recovery.’ Sadly, that didn’t happen, and Hagler passed away a short time later. 

Hearns’ revelation will be a massive blow to the continued roll-out of the vaccination program. Reports in Europe of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine causing blood clots in three patients already dealt a debilitating thud as countries have paused using the UK-based jab. Social media conspiracy theories have gone into overdrive, and there will be some work to be done to assure those taking the vaccine that it’s safe.

You Know How Drugged Up Cmdr. Cornpop Had To Be To Read That Teleprompter Yesterday?!?!?!

abcnews |   Halfway into his first 100 days, President Joe Biden has yet to hold a formal, solo news conference, raising questions about accountability with the White House under increasing pressure to explain why.

Even as the nation deals with multiple crises -- a deadly pandemic and the devastating economic fallout -- Biden has gone longer without facing extended questions from reporters than any of his 15 predecessors over the past 100 years.

The tough exchanges in such a setting can reveal much more to Americans about a president's thinking and test his explanations, as opposed to what so far have been Biden's brief answers -- often one-liner quips -- in the tightly-controlled and often-scripted events the White House has arranged to date.

The contrast with former President Donald Trump has been especially striking, especially given Biden's repeated promises to Americans that he'd always be "straight" and "transparent."

The previous record was set by President George W. Bush, who waited 33 days before hosting a formal, solo press conference. But that was more of an anomaly: Many others held them within a handful of days or a few weeks of taking office, according to an analysis of documents in a database maintained by the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

CNN first reported on Biden surpassing his predecessors' record.

The White House last week pledged Biden would hold a news conference before this month was out, but it has not yet set a date. It did schedule his first primetime address for Thursday, though, "to commemorate the one year anniversary of the COVID-19 shutdown."

Trump held his first solo, formal news conference 27 days after assuming the presidency, while President Barack Obama did the same 20 days after taking office.

Google Diversity Thinner Than Skimmed Piss - Old Marian Croak The Only Responsible Negroe On Deck...,

theverge |  Google has fired Margaret Mitchell, co-lead of the ethical AI team, after she used an automated script to look through her emails in order to find evidence of discrimination against her coworker Timnit Gebru. The news was first reported by Axios.

Mitchell’s firing comes one day after Google announced a reorganization to its AI teams working on ethics and fairness. Marian Croak, a vice president in the engineering organization, is now leading “a new center of expertise on responsible AI within Google Research,” according to a blog post. 

Mitchell joined Google in 2016 as a senior research scientist, according to her LinkedIn. Two years later, she helped start the ethical AI team alongside Gebru, a renowned researcher known for her workon bias in facial recognition technology.

In December 2020, Mitchell and Gebru were working on a paper about the dangers of large language processing models when Megan Kacholia, vice president of Google Brain, asked that the article be retracted. Gebru pushed back, saying the company needed to be more open about why the research wasn’t acceptable. Shortly afterwards, she was fired, though Google characterized her departure as a resignation. 

After Gebru’s termination, Mitchell became openly critical of Google executives, including Google AI division head Jeff Dean and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. In January, she lost her corporate email access after Google began investigating her activity.

“After conducting a review of this manager’s conduct, we confirmed that there were multiple violations of our code of conduct, as well as of our security policies, which included the exfiltration of confidential business-sensitive documents and private data of other employees,” Google said in a statement to Axios about Mitchell’s firing.

I Googled Joe Rogan Freezing In Texas And Ran Into The Musk Fsckery....,

RT |  Texans may be suffering without electricity in bitter temperatures, but Young Turks host Cenk Uygur can see the bright side, as podcaster Joe Rogan and others who relocated to the state are “freezing their asses off.”

Two dozen Texans are dead, food supplies can’t reach supermarkets, and nearly 200,000 homes are still without power as of Friday morning, as freezing temperatures wreak havoc on the Lone Star State. So paralyzing is the weather that firefighters in San Antonio on Thursday were unable to extinguish a burning apartment block due to frozen fire hydrants.

Public watchdog Rachel @Maddow warned us about Putin's plans for the #TexasBlackout and we didn't listen https://t.co/2BicIelNAF

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) February 18, 2021

One pundit managed to find an upside, however. On Twitter, Uygur, a progressive commentator, celebrated the fact that Rogan, a libertarian podcast host who had recently moved to Texas from California, was likely suffering.

“Only upside of Texas power outages is people like @joerogan, who were so proud to leave CA and move to TX, freezing their asses off,” he tweeted on Thursday. “They said they wanted less government. Congrats, mission accomplished! I hope you're not asking the government to come help you. #Freedom”

Uygur was instantly hammered for his apparent gloating. Commenters reminded the progressive pundit that California, a byword for liberal statism, regularly suffers from blackouts and wildfires, while Texas, known for its economic libertarianism, just got hit with the cold snap of a century.

 

Expendable Crazy Yellow Ants "Protecting" Parasitic Slug Politicians Kicked Out Of Capitol Hill Building

militarytimes |  National Guard troops forced to move out of the Capitol complex told Military Times they were finally allowed to return late Thursday evening.

“Because of the MASSIVE backlash over this, we are now being allowed back into the Senate building,” one National Guard soldier told Military Times. “We’re going to make a big show of marching back into the building.”

Another soldier told Military Times that “we were in the Thurgood Marshall Judicial Center parking garage and they kicked us out of that parking garage to make us walk half a mile away to the Hart Senate Office Building parking garage where we can’t be seen.’

Both soldiers spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

The move back to the Capitol came after a tremendous reaction by lawmakers and the public.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois, announced in a Tweet posted at 11:39 p.m. Thursday that she “Just received text from Guard Commander: the last Guardsmen will clear the garage by 2330 tonight.”

Duckworth earlier tweeted that she just “made a number of calls and have been informed Capitol Police have apologized to the Guardsmen and they will be allowed back into the complex tonight. I’ll keep checking to make sure they are.”

Duckworth said she made her statement after reading a story in Politico, which first reported about the situation.

Right Up To The Moment You Get Caught Then ALL The Little Bish Comes Gushing Out Of You...,

kark |  The Arkansas man photographed inside Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the riot at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday is now in federal custody.

Richard Barnett turned himself in to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in Benton County Friday morning.

Barnett, a resident of Gravette, has made headlines since a protest at the national mall turned violent and broke into the capitol building. In the aftermath, Barnett told reporters at the scene that he had taken items from Pelosi’s office.

He is facing multiple federal charges.

MSN |   A rioter who was photographed hanging from the balcony of the Senate Chamber has begged for forgiveness, saying he got "caught up in the moment."

The man—identified by local media as Josiah Colt, from Boise, Idaho—said his actions had been inappropriate and that he had not intended to "stain on our great Country's Democratic process."

His apology comes after he bragged about his rampage through the U.S. Capitol.

In a video posted on Instagram shortly after his rampage, Colt used a derogatory slur to refer to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and called her "a traitor."

The 34-year-old also claimed he was the first to sit in the Democrat's chair, however the seat would have been that of Vice President Mike Pence.

On Thursday, however, Colt said he had "brought shame upon myself" and is now seeking legal advice.

Dayyum It Feels Good To Be A Gangster...,

forbes |  Along with shutting down the proceedings of the U.S. Congress and forcing lawmakers to flee to safety during an important vote on the presidential election, the pro-Trump mob that stormed through the Capitol on Wednesday stole equipment, ripped down signs and damaged property—brazen actions they could be prosecuted for, many of which were caught on camera.  

Trump supporters took over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, upending tables, ripping down pictures, and removing a sign posted by the entrance to be used as a “trophy,” according to the New York Times; computers in Pelosi’s office may have been compromised.  

Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill tweeted that a laptop “only used for presentations” had been stolen from the speaker’s conference room, while House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn told reporters his iPad was stolen.

“Items, electronic items were stolen from senators’ offices, documents and materials were stolen,” Michael Sherwin, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said Thursday.

Richard Barnett, 60, from Gravette, Arkansas, posed for the New York Times with a note stolen from Pelosi’s office, saying he didn’t steal it because he “left a quarter” on Pelosi’s desk. 

 

This Capitol Hill Police Officer Singlehandedly Set Kneegrows Back 402 Years Today....,

Members Of That "Fallen Professional Class" Living VERY LARGE About Now....,

wirepoints  |  “As recently as Thursday,” according to WGN, Sarah Chambers “tweeted to rally special education teachers not to return to work Monday because it’s unsafe. Just a few hours earlier, Chambers posted a picture on Instagram that appears to show her pool side in Puerto Rico and talking about going to Old San Juan for seafood.”

According to WGN, the post also mentions she previously had COVID, got a negative test result and consulted her doctor before traveling.

Chambers, you may remember, was part of that solidarity mission last year by CTU members to communist Venezuela we wrote about.

At the time, she said on Twitter that “The USA does not want people to realize that another world is possible with justice and love.” Chambers also wrote on Twitter that the delegation hadn’t seen a single homeless person during their trip. No mention that housing might be plentiful because over three million people have fled – about 10% of the population.

In 2017, the school district fired her for, as reported by WTTW,

“leaving her own classroom to barge into classrooms of other teachers and issue her own instructions to students, interfering with statewide tests, and participating in a scheme to remove and transport students without any chaperone who had cleared criminal background checks, without alerting school officials which students would be missing from class and which students were unaccounted for….”

However, she claimed she was fired in retaliation for other matters and the CTU got her reinstated, the union says.

Props to Ben Bradley at WGN for catching this story.

 

Aren't Cybercommand And The Einstein Crew At DHS Culpable For The Solarwinds Fail?

politico  |  Pentagon officials are making an 11th-hour push to potentially break up the joint leadership of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, a move that would raise inevitable questions about Army Gen. Paul Nakasone's future as head of the country’s largest spy agency.

Five people familiar with the matter told POLITICO that senior Defense Department leaders are reviewing a plan to separate the two agencies, a move lawmakers and DoD had contemplated for years but had largely fallen by the wayside since Nakasone assumed command of both organizations in 2018. The Wall Street Journal reported that a meeting about the proposal is scheduled for this week. Defense One first reported the effort was afoot.

If successful, the move could create major upheaval just as national security officials try to determine the full scope of a monthslong hack of several major U.S. agencies — including Homeland Security Department and the nuclear weapons branch of the Energy Department — by Russia’s elite spy agency.

Trump “talking about trying to split up the cyber command from the national security agency, in the midst of a crisis to be talking about that type of disruption makes us vulnerable again,” House Armed Services Chair Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said Saturday night during an interview with CNN.

On Friday, Smith sent letters to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, warning them against severing the leadership of NSA and Cyber Command. The two agencies have shared leadership under a so-called dual-hat arrangement since the Pentagon stood up Cyber Command in 2009.

Nakasone has led the military’s top digital warfighting unit and the federal government’s largest intelligence agency for roughly two and a half years. He has re-imagined how both organizations can deploy their own hackers and analysts against foreign adversaries via a doctrine of “persistent engagement” — putting U.S. forces in constant contact against adversaries in cyberspace, including tracking them and taking offensive action.

The four-star is beloved by both Democrats and Republicans, especially after defending the 2018 and 2020 election from foreign interference. Some lawmakers even joke they wish they could put Nakasone in charge of more parts of the federal government.

 

A WHOLE CLOSET Of Bright Red Chinese Jimmy Choos Fell On Joe Biden's Head This Week

baldingsworld |   Lost among the salacious revelations about laptop provenance is the more mundane reality of influence and money of major United States political figures. Ill informed accusations of Russian hacking and disinformation face the documented reality of a major Chinese state financial partnership with the children of major political figures. A report by an Asian research firm raises worrying questions about the financial links between China and Hunter Biden.

Beginning just before Joe Bidens ascendancy to the Vice Presidency, Hunter Biden was travelling to Beijing meeting with Chinese financial institutions and political figures would ultimately become his investors.  Finalized in 2013, the investment partnership included money from the Chinese government, social security, and major state-owned banks a veritable who’s who of Chinese state finance.

It is not simply the state money that should cause concern but the structures and deals that took place. Most investment in specific projects came from state owned entities and flowed into state backed projects or enterprises. Even the deals speak to the worst of cronyism. The Hunter Biden investment firm share of a copper mine in the Congo was guaranteed with assets put at risk by the larger copper company to ensure deal flow to Hunter’s firm.

In another instance, Bank of China working on an IPO in Hong Kong gave its share allocation to the BHR investment partnership. They were able to do this because even though the Hunter Biden firm completed no notable work on the IPO, it is counted as a subsidiary of the Bank of China. The Hunter Biden Chinese investment partnership is literally invested in by the Chinese state and a subsidiary of the Bank of China owned by the Chinese Ministry of Finance.

The entire arrangement speaks to Chinese state interests. Meetings were held at locations that in China speak to the welcoming of foreign dignitaries or state to state relations. The Chinese organizations surrounding Hunter Biden are known intelligence and influence operatives to the United States government. The innocuous names like Chinese People’s Institute for Foreign Affairs exist to “…carry out government-directed policies and cooperative initiatives with influential foreigners without being perceived as a formal part of the Chinese government.”

Interestingly the CPIFA is under the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When the investment partnership was struck in 2013, the Minister of Foreign Affairs was Yang Jiechi. Yang would have been very familiar with Hunter Biden from his days in Washington as the Chinese Ambassador to the United States from 2001 to 2005 during which he met regularly with Joe Biden chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Today the same individual who oversaw institutions helping shepherd Hunter’s investment partnership as the Minister of Foreign Affairs is Xi Jinping’s right hand man on foreign affairs and member of the powerful Politburo.

Most worrying is the financial leverage this gives the Chinese state over a direct member of the Biden family.  Despite the widely reported $1-1.5 billion of investment the reality is likely much higher. A co-founder of the investment firm reports the total assets under management as $6.5 billion.  While this number cannot be completely replicated, given that two deal alone were worth in excess of $1.6 billion this number is not unrealistic at all.  A 2% annual fee on assets under management would generate $130 million annually. Add in the 20% fee on capital gains the firm would recognize and it is not difficult to see Hunter’s stake being worth in excess of $50 million.

According to Hunter’s attorney, he did not invest his $400,000 in the company until 2017. Even assuming the veracity of this statement, this raises a major problem. Founded in 2013, the firm had large amounts of revenue and assets under management by 2017. In other words, his $400,000 stake would have already been worth far more than what he paid for it. This paltry $400,000 investment worth more than $50 million now would have realized a gain of more than 12,400% in three years.

The difficulty in eluding these concerns is their documentability by anyone who cares to look.  There is no potential for hacking because it is all public record in China. Any journalist who wishes to look can go review IPO prospectuses, news reports, or corporate records. There is no secret method for discovering this data other than actually looking. There is simply no way to avoid the reality that Hunter Biden was granted a 10% stake worth far in excess of what he paid for a firm that is literally operated and owned by the Chinese state.

I did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016 and have significant concerns about his policies in areas like immigration. Having lived in China for nine years throughout the Xi regimes construction of concentration camps and having witnessed first hand their use of influence and intelligence operations, the Biden links worry me profoundly.

Whether Joe Biden personally knew the details, a very untenable position, it is simply political malpractice to not be aware of the details of these financial arrangements. These documentable financial links simply cannot be wished away.

 

Here is the report if you missed the previous links

Unruly Peasant How Dare You Kwestin My Blue Bailouts?!?!?!

speaker.gov  |  Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s The Situation Room to discuss the resumption of COVID relief talks after the President’s decision to walk away and other news of the day.  Below are the Speaker’s remarks: 

Wolf Blitzer.  Madam Speaker, thank you so much for joining us, and as you know, there are Americans who are being evicted from their homes.  They can't pay their rent.  Many Americans are waiting in food lines for the first time in their lives.  Can you look them in the eye, Madam Speaker, and explain why you don't want to accept the President's latest stimulus offer? 

Speaker Pelosi.  Well, because – thank you very much, Wolf.  I hope you'll ask the same question of the Republicans about why they don't really want to meet the needs of the American people.  Let me say to those people, because all of my colleagues, we represent these people.  I have for over 30 years represented my constituents.  I know what their needs are.  I listen to them.  And their needs are not addressed in the President's proposal. 

So, when you say to me, ‘Why don't you accept theirs?’  Why don't they accept ours?  Our legislation is there to do three things primarily: to honor our workers, honor our heroes, our health care workers, our police and fire, our first responders, our teachers, our transportation, sanitation, food workers the people who make our lives work.  We couldn't be doing what we are doing without them.  Many of them have risked their lives so that they – to save lives and now will lose their job because Mitch McConnell says, ‘Let the states go bankrupt.’  ‘Let the states go bankrupt.’

[Crosstalk]

Wolf Blitzer.  Excuse me for interrupting, Madam Speaker, but they need the money right now.  And even members of your own –

Speaker Pelosi.  I understand that.  You asked me a question. 

Wolf Blitzer.  Members of your own Caucus, Madam Speaker, want to accept this deal, $1.8 trillion.  Congressman Ro Khanna –

[Crosstalk]

Speaker Pelosi.  Wait a minute.  Wait a second.

Wolf Blitzer.  Let me just quote Ro Khanna, a man you know well.  I assume you admire him.  He’s a Democrat.  He just said this, he said, ‘People in need can't wait until February.  1.8 trillion is significant and more than twice Obama stimulus.’  ‘Make a deal, and put the ball in McConnell court.’  So what do you say to Ro Khanna? 

Speaker Pelosi.  What I say to you is, I don't know if you're always an apologists, and many of your colleagues apologists, for the Republican position.  Ro Khanna, that’s nice.  That isn’t what we’re going to do, and nobody is waiting until February.  I want this very much now, because people need help now. 

But it's no use giving them a false thing just because the President wants to put a check with his name on it in the mail that we should not be doing all we can to help people pay the rent, put food on the table, to enhance benefits, that they don't lose their jobs if they’re state and local, that they – this – we are talking about the consequences of a pandemic, symptoms of a problem that the President refuses to address and that is the coronavirus.  That is the coronavirus.

[Crosstalk]

Wolf Blitzer.  But we know, Madam Speaker, we know about the problem out there, but here are millions of Americans who have lost their jobs.  They can't pay their rent.  Their kids need the food. 

Speaker Pelosi.  That’s right, and that’s what we’re trying to get done. 

Wolf Blitzer.  $1.8 trillion and the President just tweeted, ‘Stimulus go big or go home.’ 

Speaker Pelosi.  Right.

Wolf Blitzer.  He wants more right now

Speaker Pelosi.  That’s right.

Wolf Blitzer.  So, why not work out a deal with him and don't let the perfect, as they say here in Washington, be the enemy of the good?

Speaker Pelosi.  Well, I will not let the wrong be the enemy of the right. 

Wolf Blitzer.  What is wrong with $1.8 trillion?

Speaker Pelosi.  You know what?  Do you have any idea what the difference is between the spending they have in their bill and that we have in our bill?  Do you realize that they have come back and said all of these things for Child Tax Credits and Earned Income Tax Credits or helping people who lost their jobs are eliminated in their bill?  Do you realize they pay no respect to the fact that child care is very important for people whose children cannot go to school because they are doing remote learning and, yet, they minimize the need for child care, which is the threshold with which people, mothers and fathers, can go to work if they have that?  Do you have any idea at how woefully short their concern, their concern –

[Crosstalk]

Wolf Blitzer.  That is precisely why, Madam Speaker, it's important right now.  Yesterday, I spoke yesterday to Andrew Yang who said the same thing.  It's not everything you want, but a lot there.

[Crosstalk]

Speaker Pelosi.  Okay you know what?  Honest to God.  You really – I can't get over it because Andrew Yang, he’s lovely.  Ro Khanna, he’s lovely.  But they are not negotiating this situation.  They have no idea of the particulars.  They have no idea of what the language is here.  I didn't come over here to have you – so you're the apologist for the Obama – excuse me.  God forbid.  Thank God for Barack Obama  

Wolf Blitzer.  Madam Speaker, I’m not an apologist.  I'm asking you serious questions because people are in desperate need right now. 

Speaking Of Turns At Nutsacks, Hillary Clinton Gave Ghislaine Maxwell's Nephew A Plum State Dept. Gig

Very curious...look where Ghislaine Maxwell’s nephew & one of two Clinton political appointees to the State Department Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs Alexander Djerassi was workinghttps://t.co/B9CtK9fVqY https://t.co/eB70wDYIW1

— TrueAnon Pod (@TrueAnonPod) February 6, 2020

thedailybeast |  Now the celebrity tabloid OK! Magazine is reporting that ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “gifted” Maxwell’s nephew, Alexander Djerassi, a position within her department when he was just out of college and gave him “special treatment.”

The Daily Beast could not confirm details of Djerassi’s appointment with the State Department nor if the role was in fact "gifted" by Clinton.

The reports come as Maxwell, 58, awaits trial in a Brooklyn federal lockup for allegedly grooming and trafficking girls for Epstein.

The report also appears to reference Djerassi’s LinkedIn profile, which lists his role as chief of staff for the “Office of the Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs” from May 2011 to June 2012. Djerassi served as special assistant to the office from May 2009 to May 2011, his online profile says.

Djerassi’s name also popped up in a collection of Clinton’s emails hacked via WikiLeaks. In a November 2011 message, Assistant Secretary Jeffrey Feltman referred to his “special assistant, Alex Djerassi.” Feltman mentioned Djerassi again in a January 2012 email, according to WikiLeaks.

Djerassi was also a nonresident associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A biography on the endowment’s website states Djerassi’s research “focused on Tunisia and U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East and North Africa.” The bio adds, “From 2009 to 2012, Djerassi was chief of staff and special assistant in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, covering U.S. relations with Arab states, Israel, and Iran. He worked on matters relating to democratization and civil society in the Arab world, the Arab uprisings, and Israeli-Palestinian peace.”

“Djerassi has served as a U.S. representative to the Friends of Libya conferences, Friends of the Syrian People conferences, U.S.-GCC Strategic Coordination Forum, and several UN General Assemblies,” the profile concludes.

The role at the State Department wasn’t the nephew’s only Clinton-related gig.

From September 2007 to June 2008, Djerassi was a policy associate for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. He listed his job duties as such: “Researched and drafted memos, briefings, and policy papers for candidate, senior staff, and news media on wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues. Prepared for more than 20 debates.” (In late 2007, Epstein was under investigation for trafficking girls in Palm Beach and working on a secret plea deal with federal prosecutors. Maxwell is believed to be one accomplice who was protected under the controversial agreement.)

The Yale and Princeton alum—the son of Maxwell’s sister Isabel—apparently returned for Clinton’s 2016 presidential run.

Djerassi lists a job as “national security policy planner” for the “Clinton-Kaine Presidential Transition Team” in 2016.

What Happened To Joltin Joe Obidenbama?

thehill |  President Trump’s reelection campaign in a new ad is attacking presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s mental acuity, a frequent target of the president’s. 

The ad, timed to coincide with the virtual Democratic National Convention, contrasts footage of Biden speaking in 2015 and 2016 with clips of him seemingly losing his train of thought in 2020.

"Did something happen to Joe Biden?" reads the opening text of the ad, which then juxtaposes Biden in 2015 saying in a speech that “he went and became president, I didn’t go and I’m still vice president” and Biden in 2020 stuttering and repeating “in addition to that” in an interview.

“You know there’s a, during World War II, uh, you know, Roosevelt came up with a thing that, uh, you know, was totally different than a, than the, he called it a, you know...” Biden says in a later clip from a 2020 interview.

Trump himself has repeatedly suggested Biden is in cognitive decline and touted his own performance on a neurological test in contrast. However, some within the Trump campaign were reportedly hesitant to incorporate the attack into campaign messaging, according to Axios. Several campaign advisers reportedly warned the line of attack could offend senior citizens, a demographic with which most polling shows Biden in the lead. 

Ultimately, however, those in favor of the attack won out. "We think it's very important that voters fully assess Joe Biden's qualifications and fitness to be president," a senior campaign official told Axios. “Our data show that people are concerned about his ability to do the job.” 

The official declined to provide the data in question to Axios. "Donald Trump is spectacularly failing every conceivable strategic test by ramping up mentions of this subject at all," Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in response to the ad.nbsp;

Every Man For Himself With The Devil Taking The Hindmost

thenation |  In early Anglo-Saxon England and until the end of European feudalism, there existed a class of people known as churls, from which we get the adjective “churlish.” They weren’t called that because they had bad manners; churls were the lowest class of free people. They were not bound to a manor like serfs, but neither did they have wealth and own property like nobles. They were people who possessed freedom to do as they pleased in theory. In practice, their poverty meant that their “free” lives were little different from those of unfree serfs.

Economic reality dictated then, as it dictates today, one’s freedom. People are only as free as they can afford to be. For Americans, lacking guaranteed access to basic necessities like housing, food, and health care (and with our bank accounts determining access to the good versions of those things), this is a constant dilemma. We place great value in perceiving ourselves as free. Yet the more we extol this freedom’s virtue, the more it sounds like we are just trying to convince ourselves. 

Real freedom would include being free to quit a terrible job without losing access to everything on the bottom level of Maslow’s pyramid. It would include freedom to live where we want, not where “the market” decides jobs will be available. It would include control over our own labor, like negotiating power over our earnings and our working conditions. In short, it would mean freedom to live the lives we desire, rather than the lives we choose based on a curated set of options over which we exercise no control.

In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama caused controversy by claiming of working-class voters in the postindustrial Midwest, “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” The “bitter clingers” remark stuck throughout the campaign, particularly as he applied it to conservative shibboleths like the Second Amendment and religion. 

To many liberals this represents a hard truth, while to the left it is an example of how a politics that abandons economic populism is an invitation for “culture wars” issues to dominate. In either case, it is a useful basis for understanding why so many Americans find comfort in a misguided notion of “freedom” that amounts only to small acts of refusenik-ism, like school kids who rebel against the dress code by untucking one corner of their shirt. When our economic system takes freedom in a meaningful sense away from the vast majority of the population, people place more value on its symbolic expression.